YouTube Features Nursing Poverty Simulation in Second Life

How can students get a deeper understanding of the day-to-day challenges of those living in poverty? One way is through a Second Life computer simulation. Second Life is an Internet based 3D Virtual World.  Nursing Professor Chris Vandenhouten, working with Instructional Designer Leif Nelson and student employees Julie Harvey and Kyle MacDonald, created a simulation program that students used to “experience” what it’s like for a family to live on the edge of poverty.

On March 3, 2010, the simulation was used in the Community Health Nursing class with 15 students participating.  Each student was assigned an Avatar, a “person” in a simulated family.  The activity mirrored what it is like to live in poverty for a “month” during which unforeseen events add to the daily stress of life.  The simulation sensitizes individuals to the day to day reality of living in poverty.  It motivates them to become aware and involved in activities and resources which help reduce the effects of poverty in the United States.  The students took time to reflect and de-brief with Dr. Vandenhouten following the simulation. 

Here’s a YouTube link about their project: http://www.youtube.com/ltdcepedagogy <http://www.youtube.com/ltdcepedagogy>

39 thoughts on “YouTube Features Nursing Poverty Simulation in Second Life”

  1. What an innovative way of teaching! I think the experience the students got from this virtual reality was highly engaging and helped the learning process. This also highlights the power of new technologies (when applied appropriately) in raising the quality of education. Thank you for sharing.

  2. Great post. Very interesting concept and an innovative way of teaching! Thank you for sharing it.

  3. Technology can do more to help the ones that are suffering in poverty. We just need to participate and do our bit. Imagine for example that home gaming systems are so powerful these days that they are being used by terrorists organizations to launch attacks online. If we harness that power of good instead of evil, think about the good we can do.

  4. I know it’s hard for people to put themselves in other people’s shoes unless they have the experience firsthand themselves. It reminds me of a quote by American journalist William Allen White: “If each man or woman could understand that every other human life is as full of sorrows, or joys, or base temptations, of heartaches and of remorse as his own . . . how much kinder, how much gentler he would be.” While the Second Life world is virtual and won’t be anywhere nearly as brutal as actually living on the streets, perhaps it will at least open people’s eyes and hearts so that we can work together to make this a better world in which to live.

  5. This is the kind of controversial initiative that borders on not being politically correct. But it’s exactly what this country need. We are raised since childhood to believe in the American dream, but we look at rich people and forget about the poor around us. Not in Africa, here at home. Empathy is a powerful tool to improve our society and the world, and young minds will benefit from it. No doubt.

  6. What an innovative way of teaching! I think the experience the students got from this virtual reality was highly engaging and helped the learning process. This also highlights the power of new technologies (when applied appropriately) in raising the quality of education. Thank you for sharing.

  7. It is interesting to know that there are people out there looking out for the poor people all over the World like here in Africa. He who refreshes others will himself be refreshed. The World would be a better place if we all cared even just a little

  8. What a fabulous idea! Second Life is a great platform for creating these environments. There are a lot of experts already inside second life that can help you build this ‘poverty’ world so students can experience it first hand.

  9. This is a very interesting project as it also gives people from wealthier families the opportunity to think about daily problems of poor people and their needs. Thus it would increase their efforts to bridge the gaps between rich and poor.

  10. I think a setup like this would be great for training medical professionals who volunteer their time to help people in need in foreign countries so they know what to expect through the simulated environment.

  11. This simulation kind of reminds of that reality TV show, I think it’s called “30 Days” or something like that, anyway, there was an episode where the host of the show and his girlfriend are trying to live on minimum wage (both of them were making minimum wage) and it was almost impossible for them.

    Watching that really hit home. My parents have been there, done that; if it wasn’t for both sets of my grandparents we would’ve been in really bad shape. Thank God things are better, still broke but not exactly poor lol :p

  12. I see this as a totally fascinating venue for overall personal growth and development. The fact that it came from a nursing professor is unsurprising to me. Nursing is one of those fields where self care and professional development is essential, and I’ve seen a lot of great thinking (related even to life coaching) come from it.

  13. I’ve tried some educative features in second life and really enjoyed it. Not at this level with a class and teacher but I’ve seen lots of virtual tutorials in that game/world. It’s really cool and I wonder what’s in store for the future of virtual worlds like that.

  14. Interesting concept. I hope it helps but I think a simulation of this type can only pale by comparison to the real day to day struggles faced by people below the poverty line. A real experience like that could only be an eye-opening and possbly life changed experience.

  15. That’s an interesting simulation, I’ve seen Second Life and though it can be used for these kind of research experiments, it’s a shame that there are enough people on there in the first place who aren’t living their lives fully in the “real” world.

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